BBC Click: innovative ways to ease the workload of nurses and doctors
As Spencer Kelly puts it in the episode that first aired on 17th March, "for almost 70 years, the UK's National Health service has been a free service at the point of care but that model is under strain as the population ages, chronic health conditions increase and resources shrink."
In response, Click's Jen Copestake went looking for "innovative ways to ease the workload of doctors and nurses".
She spent time with our partners at Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust ("CWPT") and, in particular, Linda Fitzpatrick, a Ward Manager at the Manor Hospital. Linda told Jen that, "[the staff] love it. They love the fact that it is giving you an extra support."
The technology is already alerting staff to risks faced by frail patients when they get out of bed and, as our CEO Hugh explained to Jen, this is just the beginning of the support we hope to be able to offer to dementia clinicians and those in their care:
"We've never had this capability as a species: to constantly get heart rate*, breathing rate*, activity and routine data. There's no reason as we combine, we fuse the data using artificial intelligence, that we can't detect the onset of dementia or even it getting worse. We can see a future where we detect problems earlier so you can stay in your own home, or in the setting you're most comfortable in, without coming into hospital, and that will save a huge amount of time."
With Click reporting that dementia is now the leading cause of death in the UK, we're very proud of the work we are doing with CWPT and other elderly care providers around the country to further improve the care of these vulnerable people.
You can watch the whole BBC Click episode on the future of work in healthcare here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09vpmgx/click-short-edition-ai-robot.
Source: BBC Click all rights acknowledged
*Regulatory note: heart rate and breathing rate product has not been placed on the market. A spot check device is expected to be available from early 2018; this is subject to medical device certification.
